World Athletics Championships Betting Thread

Bolt will smash Gatlin to pieces. Wouldn't be there otherwise.

Can't believe the price of Isaac Makwala in the 400m, has run a 43.72 in the last couple of months, which is seriously quick, fastest time ever by a non-American, and slightly faster than KJ's PB.

For the sake of Athletics, Bolt has to beat Gatlin, would be terrible if a drugs cheat beat the fastest man in the planet. I honestly don't know how drugs cheat can go home to their families and look their kids in the eye knowing they are cheats, kids will grow up with that stigma and will get a hard times in school. Will be a sad day for the sport if he wins which he could do and shame on Nike for sponsoring him.

Though his time was altitude assisted so should be taken with a pinch of salt IMO.

I think Bolt will win because of the vibes emanating from his camp.  I've looked at the heptathlon in depth.  Don't think there is any value myself.  A brief look at the form points towards the Canadian but the more you look at it in depth the more open it feels.  She has a very good season's best but I don't see where the improvement on that score is going to come from.  If the Canadian is to win this is her chance.  Doubt she'll ever be favourite again against KJT who has a lot of scope to improve her PB.

La Chaux de Fonds only 1000m above sea level, half the height of Mexico City, but you're right it will speed him up a bit.

Has done a 44.2 at sea level though, and also ran a sub-20 200m the day after he ran the 43.72.

As it happens, Kirani James is an absolute beast, one of my favourite current athletes, but four rounds can take it out of anyone, even though James is a proven Championship perfomer and Makwala isn't, at world level at least.

We'll see by Sunday night I guess.

I thought Bolt ran quite well in London; particularly in his heat. He'd lost a bit of weight to my eye and looked the best he looked since 2013 or maybe even 2012.

That being said, I don't think Bolt has ever truly been back to his best since 2009. I knew during 2010 that he would struggle to ever get back to the peaks he reached in 2008/2009 and his performances from 2011 onwards reaffirmed that view; he's never going to get close to his World Record's again.

Of course, he doesn't need to be anywhere near his best to win on Sunday. But Gatlin's been in sub 9.8 form all season and he's a real competitor. Like Tyson Gay, he's never been afraid of Bolt and knows upstairs that he's got his measure. He's so powerful out of the blocks that I think he could kill Bolt psychologically in the first 30 metres and Bolt'll never be able to get on terms with him.

Great race though; most competitive 100 metres we've had in years.

KJT has entered both the heptathlon and the long jump here which says to me she's confident in her fitness.  She might not be quite 100%, but I suspect she'll be very close to it.

Bolt ran 9.63 in the London Olympics and 9.77 into a headwind in Moscow 2013.  He's also younger than Gatlin.  Gatlin is strong mentally but the pressure on both will be immense and I suspect greater on Gatlin, because of the drug issue.  Bolt has the pressure of winning for the good of the sport whilst Gatlin has the pressure that if he wins he drags the sport down and will face loads of drugs questions.

Just being picky, but it's only 3 rounds. Your point is still fair enough though.

No Russian entries in the women's 20k walk despite having 3 of the top 4 in the world this year

Gatlin has run 9.7x four times this season.  Bolt has only raced three times, and only once (well twice in SF and F) ran decently, a 9.87.
As painful as it will be to see his smarmy grinning cheating face, I can't see Gatlin losing.  Bolt isn't the runner he once was.  There are lots of rumours on US running forum LetsRun, that Gatlin has been running 9.4 in training.  Might be BS, but worth factoring in.  I'm pleased to say that I was trackside at London 2012 when the laps of honour were going on, and I managed to tell Gatlin to fck off to his face.  Paid good money to see him cheat his way to gold in Athens too.  I despise the man.  Not a shred of apology or guilt.  WAC.

In the 400m look out for Wade Van Niekerk of South Africa.  He went sub 44s and beat Kirani James in Paris at the DL.  A danger and a fair price at 15/8.

No price yet, but my mate is training out in Kenya and says that Wilson Kipsang is in red hot form pre the marathon.  He'd probably be favourite anyway, especially as Eliud Kipchoge who beat him in the London Marathon has dropped out.  Will be short price, but looks a shoo-in.

In the 800m, I'll be laying David Rudisha.  Amos (7/4) of Botswana has beaten him six times in a row.  But the guy I'll be backing is Amel Tuka of Bosnia at 7/2.  Come out of nowhere this year and set the year's fastest time in beating Amos in Monaco.  I expect him to win gold.  Then disappear into obscurity.  Then get busted in a year or two's time.

sh - I don't believe it myself.  Just reporting what is being discussed on a US running chat forum.  I do expect him to run a low 9.7 though, so UB needs to be at the top of his game.

I backed Amel Tuka at 50/1 for last year's European Championships.  He'd be 1/2 this year   It was the one bet I had that came to serious money.  Took a flyer then as thought he had potential, although not quite this much!

I can see Bolt and Gatlin both running sub 9.7 myself if the wind is a +ve

800 is the one race I looked at that I thought there was the potential for a huge shock.  What with Tuka beating Amos and Rudisha losing the Kenyan trials, mebbe it's more open than first appears.  There's a lot of up and coming athletes in the field.

Danno    21 Aug 15 15:38 
Gatlin has run 9.7x four times this season.  Bolt has only raced three times, and only once (well twice in SF and F) ran decently, a 9.87.
As painful as it will be to see his smarmy grinning cheating face, I can't see Gatlin losing.  Bolt isn't the runner he once was.  There are lots of rumours on US running forum LetsRun, that Gatlin has been running 9.4 in training.  Might be BS, but worth factoring in.  I'm pleased to say that I was trackside at London 2012 when the laps of honour were going on, and I managed to tell Gatlin to fck off to his face.  Paid good money to see him cheat his way to gold in Athens too.  I despise the man.  Not a shred of apology or guilt.  WAC.

In the 400m look out for Wade Van Niekerk of South Africa.  He went sub 44s and beat Kirani James in Paris at the DL.  A danger and a fair price at 15/8.

No price yet, but my mate is training out in Kenya and says that Wilson Kipsang is in red hot form pre the marathon.  He'd probably be favourite anyway, especially as Eliud Kipchoge who beat him in the London Marathon has dropped out.  Will be short price, but looks a shoo-in.

In the 800m, I'll be laying David Rudisha.  Amos (7/4) of Botswana has beaten him six times in a row.  But the guy I'll be backing is Amel Tuka of Bosnia at 7/2.  Come out of nowhere this year and set the year's fastest time in beating Amos in Monaco.  I expect him to win gold.  Then disappear into obscurity.  Then get busted in a year or two's time.


Kipsang is around evens. Ive posted on the other sports thread hes worth opposing. A lot depends on the day in the marathon and championship races always seem to be more tactical than the big city ones so winning time may be slow. Kimetto has run 2.03 as well



Can't believe the price of Isaac Makwala in the 400m, has run a 43.72 in the last couple of months, which is seriously quick, fastest time ever by a non-American, and slightly faster than KJ's PB.

He got beaten a few weeks later when he went head to head with a bunch of the protaganists.  Didn't slow down at all in the last 100m in that 43.72 whereas every other race Ive seen hes faded. James won't be beaten




Lots of people wrote Bolt off before London 2012 when he was coming back from slow times.

Tuka had the inside round the bends and never had to check his stride.  Coming wide in the home straight is not an issue, it's going wide round the bends that is.  I thought Amos panicked a bit fighting for the lead going on the outside round the final bend.  His earlier exertions told in the home straight and Tuka just caught him.  He didn't have a terrible run by any means but the margin of victory was very small and I thought tactically he ran a poor race.  I backed Tuka in the European Champs.  He has an easy style of running and looks the same whether he finishes 1st or 6th.

Bolt will come good. He always does when it matters. If his camp didn't think he had a chance they would pull him out with 'injury' a lot of these top athletes are like boxers nowadays , dodging challengers they think they can't win.

Anyone got a UK timetable for the events?

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2015-08-21/world-athletics-championships-2015--day-by-day-guide


Are the BBC going to Beijing? Gabby Logan and Michael Johnson were reporting from Salford earlier on

clydebank's link is much better, I'll be using that myself.

Just read a boxing book called "This Bloody Mary Is The Last Thing I Own" Hamsterdam.  I'm not particularly into boxing but the book is brilliant imo.

Bolt seems very confident. That's enough for me.